231

Joseph Brevitt.

The Female Medical Repository / The History of Anatomy.

Baltimore, MD, 1810 and 1799
2 volumes in one. 252; [3]-29 pages. 12mo, contemporary calf, moderate wear, rebacked with portion of original backstrip laid down; leaf O2 defective, foxing, moderate wear, History of Anatomy lacking half-title and has leaf A5 bound out of order; early owners' signatures of Abraham Jessop and John S. Buck.

First and only editions of each. "The Female Medical Repository" bills itself as "adapted to the use of the Female Practitioners and Intelligent Mothers," and includes "a Treatise on the Primary Diseases of Infants." It is most often cited today for its chapter on "Abortion & Miscarriage" (pages 116-120). Brevitt notes that induced abortions were common in his day, and expresses his disapproval: "I feel constrained to note here the horrid depravity of human weakness, in wretches lost to every sense of religion . . . seek the means to procure abortion; nor are there wanting, in the other sex, infernals wicked enough to aid their endeavors."

Austin, Early American Medical Imprints 271, 272; Evans 35232; Shaw & Shoemaker 19633. No examples of either title traced at auction; ESTC lists 7 of the History of Anatomy in institutions.

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